I've just seen a traumatic advert

[Hot Pepsi]

Can someone explain just what it is about the retail insurance market in the UK that creates demand for sites like Confused, Compare the Market and Go Compare and why they have chosen such an absurdist marketing strategy?

I'm not aware of a similar phenomenon in any other developed country?

How is that different from how it is here? Those Progressive ads with “Flo” are ubiquitous.

[ursus arctos]

Our ads are for individual companies.

Theirs are for intermediaries that (I presume) direct punters to coverage from a range of providers from which the site gets a commission. Think of sites like Expedia, Priceline, Kayak, etc, but for insurance.

NHH, I assumed it was about name recognition, but I think that the only one that would be effective in that way over here is the Go Compare Guy because of the jingle. The others aren't sufficiently direct for the US market.

[Levin]

Are there still personal insurance brokers in the US? I think they got squeezed out in the UK by insurers advertising better rates for direct enquiries in the 80s and 90s. This then left a space for comparison websites.

This is just supposition. Surely one of our many insurance bods can give a answer based on facts and knowledge.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, we still have individual brokers.

[pebblethefish]

It's got to be said that they work though. I have never had insurance, as I don't have a house or a car, or much of a life, but I could name you those three comparison sites straight away.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I keep on getting this on Spotify. It's the tagline or whatever it's called that really gets on my Bristols:

Mind you, that exploding food thing is pretty annoying too.

[Sam]

The absolute best thing about having Spotify Premium (which my girlfriend got me a year of for my birthday a few years ago, and which I've kept since because the price they charge in Argentina is so hilariously low that it'd be silly not to) is not having to hear the adverts.

[Kevin S]

In answer to PT's question though the answer is surely yes. They've adopted, too.

[Snake Plissken]

The "we're going to hammer our website name into your brain" approach isn't just limited to comparison sites. Cars, Groupon clones... I suppose when you have 30 seconds and no highstreet visibility, it's all you've got.

Come to think of it, the Intel Inside jingle has been going for 20-odd years and that spawned a whole host of imitators.

[Ginger Yellow]

Matt Berry's got an ad voiceover for Money Supermarket on at the moment. It literally sounds like something Toast would be reading for Clem Fandango.

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/jamiemottram/status/1201882105313202182?s=21"]https://twitter.com/jamiemottram/status/1201882105313202182[/URL]

Undersells the sheer horror of the thing

[blameless]

Good god, and I thought the shouty, patronising wanker on the UK Peloton ads was bad; that US one sounds like psychological abuse.

[elguapo4]

What I've seen of the Peleton ads they're literally for people who have too much time and money, get out of your penthouse and cycle a proper bike, you wankers!

[ursus arctos]

You just don't understand affluent twat culture

[San Bernardhinault]

Any actual cyclist who had $2,500 to spend (plus an extra $400 per year for subscriptions) and space to store a Peloton bike would use that money to buy another bike, and use the space to store their extra bike. If you were a cyclist going down the indoor training route because you live somewhere with nasty winter weather, you'd use Zwift.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Well, it's certainly got people talking https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50649826

[Jah Womble]

Don’t know how well it’ll stand repeated outings, but the new Marmite ad campaign is pretty good, IMO...

[Toby Gymshorts]

Don’t know how well it’ll stand repeated outings, but the new Marmite ad campaign is pretty good, IMO...

I hate it.

[Jah Womble]

(Very good.)

[Toby Gymshorts]

Arf, etc.

[Eggchaser]

The new Renault Clio ad was written by committee.

Mimsycore version of a famous song? Check.
Agonised growing pains echoing the evolution of the car to what is surely perfection, i.e. the current mark? Check.
Star crossed lovers finally achieving their dreams? Check.

I like Renault cars, my first proper car was a Clio so I am well disposed towards the brand, but blimey, it's a lazy, lazy campaign.

[Levin]

I saw the full Sky/ET short film before Star Wars earlier. Saccharine rubbish with choppy editing, terrible storytelling & awful dialogue. Looking back it probably didn't help me with seeing the good side of Star Wars.

[jwdd27]

The Wickes advert has a couple videochatting to some Australian friends/relatives, who announce they are coming to visit, to see how the house is getting along. (It has a leaky tap and a cupboard door needs repair).
Which prompts them to spunk 20 grand on a Wickes designed new dream kitchen, to avoid "housebarrassment".
Because what people think of your kitchen is more important than the content of your character.

Housebarrassment... fuck off.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'd love a new kitchen.

[Jah Womble]

If you can readily spaff twenty Gs on a kitchen just because you’ve sniffy Antipodean pals hopping halfway around the world for the weekend - well, you’re doing better than I am. (And can probably afford better than Wickes, come to that.)